Survival
by the stargate time traveller
Summary: The Rani survives the war, see how in this oneshot. features the 8th doctor.


**Disclaimer - I don't own Doctor Who, just this story.**

**Survival.**

The SIDRAT was falling apart, the Rani could see that as the timeship passed through the time lock. The machine was primitive but it worked, unfortunately the instrumentation was rudimentary and she could already see that the systems were decaying and falling apart. She wasn't surprised, no time machine could pass through a time lock and she wasn't going to risk her TARDIS for that. Better a more primitive machine.

She sat down, careful to avoid the power cables which ran from her TARDIS, in its basic form. The Rani closed her eyes, her head throbbing. The wound on her head was giving her allsorts of pain. It was fortunately lucky that she hadn't regenerated. She had more than enough problems without worrying about that.

The Rani sighed as she leant back against the support columns, SIDRATS were rudimentary machines and came with the most simplest of interior designs, hence the columns which existed everywhere near the doors. It hadn't been easy, escaping Gallifrey and the war. The Time lock had formed around the war, which wasn't much of a surprise considering the harm the war was doing to the universe.

Rassilon had finally flipped, the idea of the ultimate sanction was unbelievable; from a certain point of view the war was lost for the Time lords, Rassilon was just too blind to see it. The idea had some merit, but the idea of ascending to a new level of consciousness….madness.

Besides, Rani thought to herself, I wouldn't be able to carry out my work without the universe.

The Rani remembered the war, the pain, the paradoxes and unusual anomalies of the fabric of reality being torn to pieces. The loss of the Cruciform, one of the greatest of the Time lord's achievements…..

The Rani closed her eyes, she'd only just managed to get to the TARDIS bay….

The Rani ran all the way to the TARDIS bay where her own TARDIS was berthed. All around her, Time lords and ladies ran, falling, their robes in scarlet were more a hindrance than a help. Members of the chancellery guard, their stasers drawn, looking lost as the building they were in shook as the Dalek weapons penetrated the dome of the citadel.

The Rani ignored her fellow Time lords, until she came across another Time lord. Unlike the others, this Time lord had long hair uncovered by a skull cap, he wore a long velvet jacket.

" Doctor!"

He took a deep breath, " Rani, what's happening ?"

Rani shook her head, " What do you think ? The Daleks are breaking through, this is their final assault." she took a deeper look at him, " What is it ?"

The Doctor's face dropped into a scowl, " Rassilon. He's actually doing it."

The Rani looked at him in disbelief, " What ? I thought…." she stopped.

The Doctor looked back at her, " Did you really believe that he wouldn't ? It may have originally been a contingency plan. I've sat in his council meetings, he's stirred them up like a hornets nest. They seem to think this is their ultimate thing. They speak of nothing else."

The Rani nodded, " I can imagine. What're you going to do ?"

The Rani and the Doctor had recently become very good friends, it had come about because of their respective children's deaths 4 years previously. They'd fought in the same battle, the elder Time lords had been the only survivors, their skills in surviving insurmountable odds acting in their favour, but not for their children.

Since then they'd spent a lot of time together and got to know each other better.

The Doctor took a deep breath, " Get off Gallifrey Rani, I've spoken to Romana and a few others. They're taking a large number of our people, including children and evacuating. The only problem is the time lock which is establishing around the war, its getting more and more solid. Eventually nothing can get by it."

Rani looked him straight in the eye, " You think its getting that bad ?"

The Time lords had spoken about evacuation in the past because the war had been getting worse, the Time lords hadn't needed to go to war for thousands of centuries. The war with the Daleks had startled them because the Daleks were unlike any enemy the Time lords had ever thought.

The war had raised concerns of the conflict, that the high council was falling further apart even with Romana, an experienced Time lady president and expert in the Daleks. The concerns grew worse after Rassilon returned, the war grew worse and the Daleks gained more and more ground. Lady Romana was using what was left of her influence to try and send the some of their race away.

" I don't doubt it." The Doctor replied. He looked around sadly, " I never wanted it to come to this, I shouldn't have let my compassion stop me from destroying the Daleks. If I'd have known…." he stopped.

The Doctor closed his eyes and the Rani could see he was torn. Then the Doctor nodded, the Rani could see that he didn't want to do what he was thinking about.

" Go, Rani, go. I hope we meet again, if we're lucky."

The Doctor started running away from her before she could ask what he had in mind. The Rani closed her eyes and prayed that he'd survive.

She turned and continued on her way.

Her TARDIS had been parked inside the SIDRAT for an hour whilst the Rani made her preparations. She disconnected the eye of harmony link to her TARDIS, linking her ships' power to the SIDRAT and giving the other machine more power.

There were times when the SIDRAT shuddered as Gallifrey was rocked with explosions. When she was finished the Rani activated the dematerialisation controller.

The SIDRAT had left Gallifrey. Using the scanner in her TARDIS she had a good view of the planet of her birth. The Dalek saucers were bombarding the planet with antimatter drills and black hole missiles. The Rani could see the planet being heavily damaged as the missiles got through the surviving transduction barriers. The Daleks were busy enough with destroying her planet to worry about her. Besides the SIDRAT was old, the Daleks probably thought it was something else.

With luck.

Just then, a sound, unlike anything the Rani had heard before started and grew louder and louder with each second. In that instant, the planet started to glow and then it exploded in one massive bang. The Eye of Harmony converted the surrounding area into antimatter and detonated.

Annihilation.

She was alone.

Alone.

The Rani had been alone before, but that was when she'd been exiled from Gallifrey and she was still able to hear her people.

Now nothing.

Just then the console bleeped, the Rani jumped up and studied the instruments. The SIDRAT had emerged outside the time lock.

Freedom.

The Rani smiled. A whole universe, without the Time lords, oh she'd miss them but they always bored her silly with their complacency.

Now.. She could really get to work.


End file.
